I don’t typically review books here that I didn’t love. Mainly because I don’t have extra hours to spend writing about something that didn’t resonate, and I doubt you’re here for that either. :-) But Broken Country felt different. I wanted to share it because I’m genuinely interested to hear your thoughts.
In Broken Country by Loren McClenachan, we meet Beth, a woman still reeling from the devastating loss of her young son. Grief has unraveled her marriage, strained her faith, and left her searching for meaning in all the wrong places. As the story unfolds, Beth’s choices – some desperate, others deeply selfish – ripple through the lives of everyone around her, from her husband Frank to the small Montana community they call home. It’s a story about grief, guilt, redemption, and the way brokenness can echo through generations and what it might take to heal.
It was a really slow start for me. If I hadn’t been on a time crunch for book club, I’m not sure I would have finished. But starting from about a third of the way in I flew through it.
If you haven’t read it yet, stop here. Spoilers ahead!
I just couldn’t stand Beth. She lied by omission, engaged in emotional and physical infidelity, and left so many people hurt in her wake. If you’re counting, that’s about nine lives upended because of her choices.
I can absolutely appreciate the weight of grief and believe in second chances, but overall, I felt frustrated. The final straw for me was her getting pregnant again at the end knowing her husband would miss five years of their child’s life and that their child would miss five years with their father. After years of Frank wanting a baby, that choice felt… selfish. Once again.
While this wasn’t a favorite for me, I will say it prompted some of the best discussion we’ve had at book club in a while. It touches on forgiveness, grief, and the messy reality of human relationships, even if I didn’t always agree with how those themes played out.
Have you read Broken Country? I’d love to know what you thought. Did you sympathize with Beth at all, or were you as frustrated as I was?
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